That'll Be the Day

1973

Action / Drama / Music

3
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 56% · 2 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 56% · 1K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.6/10 10 1493 1.5K

rock 'n' roll 1950s

Plot summary

Britain, 1958. Restless at school and bored with his life, Jim leaves home to take a series of low-level jobs at a seaside amusement park, where he discovers a world of cheap sex and petty crime. But when that world comes to a shockingly brutal end, Jim returns home. As the local music scene explodes, Jim must decide between a life of adult responsibility or a new phenomenon called rock & roll.

Director

Claude Whatham Photo
Claude Whatham

Top cast

Rosalind Ayres Photo
Rosalind Ayres as Jeanette
Verna Harvey Photo
Verna Harvey as Wendy
James Booth Photo
James Booth as Mr. MacLaine
Daphne Oxenford Photo
Daphne Oxenford as Mrs. Sutcliffe
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
778.95 MB
1280*682
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 31 min
Seeds 2
1.4 GB
1920*1024
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 31 min
Seeds 4

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Cinemayo 7 / 10

That'll Be the Day (1973) ***

David Essex takes on the lead role of Jimmy McLaine, a young man living in working class Britain during the late 1950s, when American rock 'n' roll was King of England. Growing up with a good deal of angst after his dad walked out on the family when Jimmy was still only a boy, McLaine finds himself fed up with school and the more conventional way of life and decides to abandon his struggling mother, striking out on his own. Settling for odd jobs here and there, Jim finds a sidekick in the humorous and more experienced Mike (played by ex-Beatle Ringo Starr) and the pair of delinquents engage in petty crime in between bedding down as many local ladies as they can get their hands on. When Jimmy begins to have a change of heart he returns home to mom and settles down, only to find that he must make the ultimate decision on whether to confront his responsibilities or indulge his passion for being a rock and roll star.David Essex is good as Jim, and Ringo Starr gives maybe the finest performance of his occasional acting career as Mike, who becomes Jimmy's mentor and room mate. It's amazing how well the 33-year-old former Beatle pulls off the role of a young kid, and the same may be said for an over-aged Essex. The film perfectly captures the climate of England in the late 1950s and benefits from a huge array of classic American oldies on the music soundtrack, from artists like Ritchie Valens, Del Shannon, The Big Bopper, Bobby Darin and others.After I saw this I read that it's been said that this story was patterned after a young John Lennon, and while I can agree (with the benefit of hindsight) that there are some similarities between John's life and the Essex character here, even as a die-hard Beatles fan I didn't pick up on this during my actual viewing of the film. It is loosely based on Lennon at best (John's dad also left him, he loved rock music, and he had a wreckless nature as a youth). *** out of ****
Reviewed by clive-richards63 7 / 10

Second viewing ... 40 years since first viewing

The lead character is really a very unpleasant individual. In one scene forcing himself on an underage school girl, another he abandons his friend who is being beaten up by a gang, sleeps with his wife to be's best friend the night before his wedding and finally he leaves his wife and baby to try and become a pop star!
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